A few weeks ago I became the proud owner of a 1966 Dodge Charger. Its in good condition but it needs some engine work. Unfortunately, about the only thing I know how to fix in a car is, uh, well… hmmm… I guess I really don’t know how to fix anything in a car. Not a good place to be when you own one of these!
Jason clued me in on a few things and suggested I find a Chilton Manual. He said that it will help me learn how to “fix” things. So I immediately put my never-been-grease-stained fingers to work and went to Google to find such a manual.
I performed a search for “chilton manual 1966 Dodge charger.” I figured that would be pretty specific. About halfway down the SERPs page I found two site’s that looked like a good fit.
The seventh listing down mentions “Chilton” in the title so I clicked that first. I’ve produced an image below, but you really need to click to the site in to fully appreciate the problems with this page.
The image above represents the body area of the page, I’ve cut out the header, footer and side nav. What’s great about this page is that it gives you a non-clickable “Start Shopping Here” image with arrows that point to more completely non-clickable images.
I’m sorry. Start shopping where?
Nothing like spending money on a good cloaked page that can’t even lead people to conversions. The best they got is a “Shop by Brand” drop down list on the left.
Sorry. Next. Moving on…
This time I hit the link to autopartswarehouse.com.
No cloaking here, but we do get a keyword targeted doorway page. Unfortunately, I’m still required to do some work of my own to find the actual product I want. Unfortunately for them, on my first attempt I used the “shop replacement” search rather than the “shop performance” search. The non-mechanic that I am I really don’t know the difference. Not finding what I was looking for I ended up going to e-bay and found a manual that I was looking for.
We often find ourselves trying to explain to potential clients that we are not a “top ranking factory.” Rankings are great and all, but usability and conversions really do matter. Those that still don’t get that need to think about these two sites. Both have first page rankings, but both have poor usability issues. I’m sure both are getting tons of traffic and even some conversions, but imagine how much better their conversions would be if they provided a more customer-friendly website. It all starts with better landing pages.
All you top ranking seekers, enjoy your traffic! In the meantime, someone who doesn’t even come up on the first page is getting your conversions! Sucks to be you!
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